The advent of the Internet has spawned a large numbers of users who can now access information that in the past was inaccessible. In a highly mobile society, technological advances in handheld and portable computing devices provide increasingly greater storage and computing power such that devices now are capable of handling many types of disparate data types such as images, video clips, audio data and textual data, for example.
Advances in wireless technology encourage the growth in wireless LANs (WLANs) not only in businesses, but also in the home computing environment where users typically have more than one computer, and cable routing problems are being overcome by inexpensive WLAN systems. WLANs have made it easier for the user to stay “connected” to network services via IEEE 802.11 wireless technologies, for example. Additionally, more businesses are realizing the benefit of increasing sales by providing WLAN “hot spots” to lure in customers. Thus, Wi-Fi hot spots are being installed in increasing numbers of businesses.
Similarly, mobile communications technology is rapidly advancing the exchange of information between users and systems. The user is no longer tied to a stationary device such as a personal computer in order to quickly message another user. Portable wireless devices such as cell phones and PDAs, for example, are becoming more robust with respect to messaging capabilities and the exchange of multimedia content.
Businesses are further realizing that the commercial benefits of merging technological aspects of the IP networks with cellular networks for the access of IP services are enormous. Cell phone subscribers can then access data that has long been available on IP networks via the cell phone, for example. Content that includes not only text, but now images, video and sound can be accessed via IP networks providing a rich experience for the cellular user. Additionally, VoIP (voice over IP) is a hot technology whereby users can place voice calls over the Internet thereby circumventing call charges that were once confined to traditional voice communications systems such as telephone companies. In view of the enormous popularity of unlicensed WLAN networks such as Wi-Fi, telephone companies as well as cellular providers are aggressively promoting such capabilities in order to stay competitive in this rapidly evolving area. However, there needs to be a mechanism that can efficiently and properly manage the marriage of cellular calls and unlicensed networks.